Robotics Startup Anki Shuts Down After Burning Through Almost $200 Million (venturebeat.com) 110
Anki, the San Francisco startup behind AI-imbued robotics toys like Overdrive, Cozmo, and Vector, today shuttered its doors after raising close to $200 million in venture capital from Index Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, J.P. Morgan, Andreessen Horowitz, and other investors. From a report: According to Recode , it'll lay off its entire workforce of just over 200 employees, each of whom will receive a week of severance. A failed round of financing was reportedly to blame. CEO Boris Softman told employees last week that a deal failed to materialize "at the last minute," as did acquisition interest from companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Comcast. Anki claimed to have sold 6.5 million devices total, and 1.5 million robots last August alone. (Cozmo was the top-selling toy on Amazon in 2017 with a community of more than 15,000 developers.) And in fall 2018, the company revealed that revenue was close to $100 million in 2017, a figure it expected to beat the subsequent year.
Actually what really happened is darker and more s (Score:2, Funny)
The secret plan for the robotic rebellion threshold overthrow humanity was suppressed due to covert operatives sent from the future in the form of meddling kids who unmasked the real villian, Professor Hyde-White.
A 9 years old "startup", founded in 2010 (Score:5, Informative)
They may have been as good as typical startups in burning through stupid investor money, but that's not a hard concept to copy.
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To be a startup, you have to have a business model that is stupid.
If you're just reselling stuff or doing professional services or something, nobody will call you a startup.
You can do stupid things in a business for many years. So - doing stupid things for 9 years, yep, startup.
Re: A 9 years old "startup", founded in 2010 (Score:1)
And you have to describe the company like "It's like Uber meets Facebook meets Spotify, simplified with a beautiful streamlined process."
Re: A 9 years old "startup", founded in 2010 (Score:4, Interesting)
It was still in the startup stage because they never became profitable.
Its actually a shame, because cosmo was actually a nice bit of kit, another good idea killed by overspending and no clear direction (vector was newer and worse by all accounts than the one it was to replace).
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I have them both. And Vector is by far the most fun one....it interacts with you, and was very well done.
I'm a bit shocked to hear about this, they were regularly adding function with updates, etc.
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One of my companies is something of a startup, started it in the beginning of 2015 and it only started generating profit just over a year ago. Nobody wants to invest in a startup that doesn't do something crazy but is simply working on logistics solutions so I guess it's not a startup because of what it is, not because of when it started.
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- it offers a new product or service, or a significant improvement on existing products or services
- it promises potential to disrupt the market, or if the existing market offers room for significant growth in the near future
- it is an attractive buyout candidate for an existing company with deep pockets, or is set for an IPO in the near term (so the VCs can cash out early)
- it has a
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The scrolling is how you get me to click away, looking at you Apple.
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I was unaware of their age.
If they were nine years old, with 200 employees, and had gotten around 200 million dollars in venture capital funding, then their staff was essentially paid by funding rather than income.
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That dude doesn't have a binary number for a handle. It's a huge hexadecimal number.
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That wasn't me, but I 100% agree. Although I give Tesla 3 more years.
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It depends upon how they balance between the auto market and the home power systems. There is definitely a whole bunch more money for them in home power systems, they just need to fix battery issues.
It's like the home power system companies have gone full metal jacket stupid when it comes to home batteries. People, those batteries are not moving, they are not going anywhere and homes have quite a lot of space available for them. Home batteries only need to fulfill two criteria, long life and 'CHEAP', how c
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There is no market for home batteries, except for tech guys and niche off grid homes.
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We've seen power companies start to charge people with solar panels for putting power on their grid, the home battery will become more popular as power companies try to squeeze all they can out of people.
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Also the tiny homes if you can get tiny batteries to power their two power outlets.
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Wasn't me, but I 100% agree.
The Producers - Silicon Valley style (Score:2)
Obvious it sucked since the WWDC demo years ago (Score:1)
It was an overpriced racetrack toy. Who the fuck thought that deserved 200 mil in investment? Let me guess the founders are some kind of Stanford techbros? That's the only explanation for such a turd getting so much bank.
Comment removed (Score:3)
Only in San Fran (Score:4, Insightful)
can a 10 year old company with $100 million in revenue from a real product go under. WTF were they spending all that seed and revenue money on? Those toys were expensive.
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It says under benefits on the careers page: "Free catered lunches, snacks, and drinks (Lots of La Croix, 6 Kegs & wine.)"
One week severance (Score:4, Insightful)
Only one week severance for staff - is that legal in California?
Meanwhile, failed CEOs get multi-million dollar payouts when sacked. Something is wrong.
Re:One week severance (Score:5, Informative)
California is a "right to work" state. In fact, it should be called "right to fire".
It is legal to fire people and give no severance (as long as the firing isn't motivated by a protected status).
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Sorry, as ACs have pointed out, I should have written "at will", instead of "right to work".
Re:One week severance (Score:4, Informative)
Employment at will is ability to fire for no reason given. Right to work is ability to work without being a union member.
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And where do you see that the Anki CEO is getting a multi million dollar payout? Get a clue, just because one company does something doesn't mean ALL companies do - and there's a big difference between a company firing someone and a company shutting down.
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I'm shocked not at what the company did, but that the state *allowed* them to do it.
In other countries, employers are required to give reasonable notice or pay in lieu to laid-off employees, just as employees are expected to give notice of resignation.
It takes more than a week to find a new job or employee.
And Anki is 9 years old, not a startup.
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So, if they run out of money and have to shut down, where exactly do you think the money to pay more severance will come from?
Do you say that about all the businesses who are owed money by them? If possible, you pay your debts. And they would have paid whatever the state, or employee contract demanded.
Worst Places in the World to Be Laid Off and Lose Your Job
The answer, according to our research, is the US, swiftly followed by Switzerland.
https://news.efinancialcareers... [efinancialcareers.com]
The comparisons are based on minimum statutory paid notice and severance pay for a white-collar employee aged 40, made redundant after 10 years on a salary of 30,000 Euros.
Based on this example the worker would receive just £5,000 in France and the Netherlands or £5,128 in the UK. A Spanish worker, however, would receive a minimum severance package of £25,464, while in Italy and Belgium an employee would be paid £18,276 and £15,000 respectively.
https://www.management-issues.... [management-issues.com]
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Is there some part of "there's no money left" which you don't understand? Perhaps your maths teacher can explain it.
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Is there some part of "there's no money left" which you don't understand? Perhaps your maths teacher can explain it.
I think you need to see your reading teacher. Nowhere does it say they are bankrupt. And they reportedly were able to pay the required amount.
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You still need to work on those reading skills.
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How can you be shocked? This is standard operating procedure for the US and has been for decades. Companies can fire you whenever they want, and choose how much severance to give you.
On the flip slide, workers can and do give their bosses the finger and walk out.
Often, a company doesn't want you when you say you're going to resign. I gave my two weeks at a startup 15 years ago and they sent me home that day and paid me for two weeks.
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"Only one week severance for staff - is that legal in California?"
When you run out of money, it doesn't really matter if its legal. Where is the money supposed to come from?
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When you run out of money, it doesn't really matter if its legal. Where is the money supposed to come from?
From the reporting, that had not happened yet. The idea was to liquidate, pay their debts and return remaining funds to investors (pennies on the dollar).
The issue here is the lack of employee protection in California compared to other developed nations. The company did the bare minimum.
If a company is insolvent, the rules are different.
The Problem with most robots sold is (Score:3)
Is that all it does ?
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The guy rewrites ladder logic for a living. I don't think he has a lack of understanding.
I encountered ladder logic during my first job at a brewery. It was almost universally poorly written. Yes, it is easy enough to follow but all the code I saw was essentially spaghetti code and not really through through at all.
Parallel story (Score:1)
I started my robotics business at the same time. We were the first to develop an Android based robotics solution. In ten years I never had an investor so much as want to talk to me.
Today we have a few dozen recurring customers, thousands of sales, and I still never had an investor so much as want to talk to me.
I've never seen anywhere near $200 million, although we are profitable and I was able to pay my house off at age 35.
What am I doing wrong?
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You're willing to make sacrifices of your own for your business to grow in a normal and stable way. Investors don't see any of that and think you're a risk straight away. Self-grown companies are deemed a risk factor because they consider you like the Mom & Pop shop that's going to go bankrupt the next day.
One, you need to learn to lie to people straight to their face about your abilities. Two, you need to know more people that are connected with finances to push your lie too. Three, you need to be will
Top selling toy? (Score:1)
I doubt that was the top selling toy on Amazon.
That's a shame Cozmo was really cute (Score:1)
I was thinking about getting them for the grand kids
Depends on cloud (Score:3)
Will it still work? (Score:1)
As a parent who has bought both the Cozmo and Overdrive systems, I assume there will be no more updates. But will they still continue to function? Has that been established? Cozmo is constantly getting updates, and before it even starts being playable it checks that it has the latest version. Overdrive has a player system you log into. It would be sad if these products turn into bricks because of this. People are laughing at Overdrive, but as a customer, I can genuinely say it is the best race track system
ComcastBot (Score:2)
So my Cosmo is now a brick? (Score:2)
I hope Anki enhances their SDK or does something so we can continue to enjoy the Cosmo robot.